Flavours fit for a King

Small scale food manufacturers need greater access to facilities where they can test, make and package their product.

Regina King, founder and managing director of King's Specialty beverages, shared this view in a Business Day interview about what tools her company needs to expand beyond the local retail space to become an exporter.

"Our core staff is three people, including myself. We use a facility run by the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri) to make our ponche de crème line, our fruit liqueurs and now our newest product, cream-based eggless liqueurs.

"We need more facilities like this, where food manufacturers are able to produce higher volumes as needed. That's hard to do (efficiently) otherwise and a lot of times companies like your product but you're not at a level where you can go out and spend $1 million on a plant. What do we do between this (small) stage and getting to that next level? This is where a joint manufacturing facility like Cariri's comes in."

King is able to currently able to produce up to 800 litres of product per week at Cariri's facility, which means she can fill retail clients' orders in a timely manner.

"They also do production for other local brands. We did product testing and trials at this facility too because you don't want to do a large patch of product and then realise it doesn't taste how it should. We pay to use the facility, there's no subsidisation."

King called for more of these facilities to be opened in TT, and as such, welcomed the news that state agency exporTT would like to set up one. ExportTT's manager of capacity building and programme financing Crisen Maharaj said having received requests for assistance with access to production facilities, exporTT "is trying to get a joint manufacturing facility established. We are pushing to make this a reality." Maharaj was speaking at its Meet the Media event at Export House, Charlotte Street, Port of Spain on August 10.

Commenting on this, King told Business Day the idea "makes a lot of sense. A lot of times we get into business to focus on our core jobs, not necessarily to buy a facility. Having access to a facility that can be leased and which is well-equipped and meets international standards would allow us micro and small businesses to make world class products. So I definitely support exporTT's plans."

King's Specialty makes ponche de crème in several flavours, fruits liqueurs using fruits available locally – namely five finger, banana, mango, guava and sorrel – and now, cream-based liqueurs.

Liqueur Brew, Cheeri and Qaanela were all launched at Bess Fest in July while Chocohlate was launched at the exporTT event.

The response has been very favourable overall but King said the most popular flavour was the newest.

"Chocohlate is on a whole level by itself. All of the products have a smooth finish but the chocolate flavour – made using the finest local cocoa – has an extra richness to it. Everyone who tried it today was pleasantly surprised by that."

King started making cream-based liqueurs in response to customer demand for both for more variety and eggless products.

Customers in Trinidad can buy King's Specialty drinks at retail outlets in Port of Spain, St James, Valsayn and San Fernando and via the company's Facebook and Instagram pages. King is not only working to "boost" her local retail presence, she wants to begin exporting too, which is why she joined exporTT's Exporter Development Programme earlier this year.

"It's been a very great experience being a part of the programme. So far, I've been exposed to understanding export basics, understanding the markets – when you're looking to market and see where's most suitable for your product – and also being here at events like this, where we get to meet people from different walks of life and introduce them to our products."

King said the best part of working with exporTT has been getting direct access to information pertinent to export requirements and a platform for local product recognition whilst you put things in place to become an exporter.

King may not have officially exported anything yet but thanks to visitors who stock up on her drinks to take home, King's Specialty drinks have reached as far as Equatorial Guinea. They've also been taken to Antigua, Canada, Jamaica and the US, among other countries.